This is an amazing gamebook conversion of the infamous short story "The Call of Cthulhu", written way back in the early 20th century by the master of the Mythos: H.P. Lovecraft. The story is essentially an account of a young man who has to explore the suspicious events surrounding his great uncle's unnatural death and all of the weirdness that follows.
Now, this Gamebook Its incredibly well written but I guess it had some pretty solid source material to work with.
That classic unshakable sense of dread and isolation that many of his works cause the reader to feel is ever so present in this Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style adaptation, leaving every daunting choice up to you.
No combat mechanics are included, everything is handled by your decision-making skills.
The path is very open from the get-go, allowing you to take your investigation worldwide and globe-trot to all sorts of exotic and eerie locations, Indiana Jones-style, as well as offering lots of opportunities to backtrack so you can soak up as much of the story as possible. It's actually quite rare when a gamebook allows you to backtrack.
There are a few instances where you can get into a repeating loop and some of the fatal endings do seem pretty bizarre and out of the blue, but that's to be expected when you meddle with the Cthulhu mythos.
One thing to note is that while the presentation is more akin to the choose your own adventure books, the content is far from that. This is dark, mysterious, violent and incredibly mind-bending stuff you’re dealing with here. Just bear that in mind if you’re looking for a light adventure.
I’m a big fan of Lovecraft's work and this gamebook really does do the original story justice. Allowing you to experience the events of the book first hand, it's an awesome way for you to take in the story and immerse yourself into his world. Sadly if you’ve read the original short story, some of the outcomes may not come as a surprise.
Reviewed by Harrison Marchant
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